Wednesday, 2 March, 2016 - 14:15
Category: 
Activities

COME ON A NT ‘Cultural’ Learning Adventure - For an exciting and enriching cultural experience don’t look past the Northern Territory.

NT Learning Adventures offers a base for you to begin your planning and discover what is available for your school students. Go to www.ntlearningadventures.com for more information, or email [email protected].

Culture is what binds people to each other and to places. In the living cultural landscape of Kakadu, Bininj culture is at the heart of everything. Sharing culture with visitors is so important because it builds respect and understanding, helps people really see the multitude of stories embedded in the landscape and leaves visitors with a strong connection to country.
LIA ARCIONI
Kakadu National Park Interpretation Officer

Culture. It’s what connects us as a nation; and for many of us, it’s what fuels our strong sense of pride in being an authentic Australian. But how much do we really know about our iconic Aboriginal history; spanning more than 50,000 years?

To draw a positive answer to this question, the Australian curriculum has now set out a list of new cross-curriculum priorities to be taught across a range of learning areas. Ultimately, this approach will look to ensure the next generation is learning about our living cultural landscape.

With more than 80 different Aboriginal language groups in the Northern Territory alone, almost half of the region is considered Aboriginal land. Many of the remote communities such as in Arnhem Land and throughout Central Australia still lead a heavily traditional lifestyle – making students’ knowledge of it an important lesson.

I believe teaching students our Culture is very important, having two way education is the only way I see that our traditional Culture will survive.

When I was young we grew up with believing in our Culture and the Elders were really strict with us. If we disobeyed we’d be in trouble and get punished, which taught us how to listen and respect and be responsible for our own actions, which I think made us get scared to get in trouble.

So that’s why I think teaching not only our kids but any kids about our culture they would have a better understanding of our ways and why we do things a little bit different than them, it’s also about connections to country and why it’s important to us wanting to protect sacred sites.

All of this is very important to us and we want people to understand why we get very protective of our country and why we want to teach not only in schools but also in universities too, we have every other languages taught in our schools but not the Indigenous languages of Australia”.
JANE RUNYU-FORDIMAIL
Chairperson and Cultural Services Manager of Nitmiluk Tours

Visiting schools to the NT are encouraged to engage and connect with country and to learn from the local Indigenous people of that particular area. Where ever you are within the NT, there are a variety of opportunities to arrange a cultural experience that is very relatable to the curriculum and life in general. Our Learning Adventure operators all align with working towards creating successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens. A Learning Adventure to the NT is not just about meeting the requirements or expectations of the school, it’s about physical and ‘real’ learning. Adventure Learning is potentially the most effective and unequivocal pedagogy that creates episodic memories. At times it is thought to be difficult to arrange an excursion and raises safety concerns in addition to the other barriers such as risk assessment and permissions from the school board or principals. It seems trivial, given the educational and social benefits of an excursion, that so much paper work is involved. Our group of NT Learning Adventure operators understand these restrictions and can provide risk assessments, learning outcomes and educational resources for any school group itinerary.

In my opinion it is extremely important for young people to learn about our country’s history and to experience Aboriginal culture first hand as it offers opportunity to reflect on where we have come from, where we are right now and where we are headed. Through learning about our Aboriginal history and culture we are able to move forward with an honest perspective about our country. It is also my opinion that given the nature of our history in Victoria, and the devastating effect of the destruction of Aboriginal groups here, young people feel far removed from our country’s Aboriginal history. That being said, I believe that Victorian young people given the opportunity to learn about the oldest living culture first hand, will have an appreciation for and an understanding of the challenges faced by our nation’s first people. This is our Australian history and it is important that young people are taught and experience their history.
ELLEN PRIOR
Lara Secondary College, Teacher familiarisation participant 2015.

We know that many students come from different backgrounds, religions, culture and of course have varying lifestyles so it’s difficult to expect each student will benefit and learn from one experience. A well planned learning adventure offers diversity, helping students find their own place in life. Many students, in fact, find their real passion in life on a learning adventure to the NT. It prompts students to think outside of the square and ask the important questions of themselves “What do I want to be when I grow up?”, “what is so special about this experience?”, “does this suit me or not?”. It’s about participating in activities which supplement classroom learning. It’s about encouraging new interests, creating an awareness of community resources and those that relate to their educational experience to the outside world.

I think it is important for Australian students to learn about Aboriginal culture and history. Experiencing it first-hand makes students more aware of the uniqueness of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. Hearing traditional dreamtime stories and participating in activities, such as art and dance classes allows them to make connections with the ancient land, its spirituality and its history.
SALLY GOSS
Brunswick Secondary College, Junior School Leader, Teacher familiarisation participant 2015